Watch your savings accounts! The government's trying to claim your hard earned money!

So some CRAZY laws were changed at the end of last year that meant the government could automatically take your savings from "inactive" bank accounts without your permission. Considering the purpose of a "savings" account this law is just absurd. These unclaimed money laws have recently come into affect, so check your bank accounts immediately to see if this has happened to you as its happened to me and some of my clients!

One of my clients were in complete shock this week when they received their bank statement. They had $1,000 sitting in a bank account which were there "rainy day" savings. They hadn't put any money in it for a few years and they hadn't taken any money out. However, the bank statement showed a balance of $1,000 at the start of May and a balance of $0 at the end of May. They couldn't work out where the money had gone as they hadn't touched it. So what had happened to the money? The government had taken it from their account. No letter from the government and no warning from their bank!

This also almost happened to myself. I have a small amount of money in a savings account, which was once again a "rainy day" savings. Fortunately, the bank called us to let us know that if there was no money in or out of a bank account for 3 years the government was now taking the money. We immediately transferred in a dollar. (Bank fees and interested earned are not considered to be money going in or out!)

These new unclaimed money laws were changed from 7 years down to 3 years in December 2012 . I can not believe how CRAZY this is. I encourage my clients to put away some savings for a rainy day and now their hard earned money is at risk from the government taking it.

Its also interesting to note that there has been very little government press out about these rules and educating people about the changes. We get bombarded with other rule changes to showcase what the government is doing, why not something like this?

TIPS TO MAKE SURE YOUR SAVINGS AREN'T CLAIMED BY THE GOVERNMENT:

• Check your bank accounts, even the long lost bank account that you opened when you were 5.
• Get in touch with your bank to make sure they have the your correct contact details.
• Consolidate your savings accounts and transfer in as little as 5 cents every 2 to 3 years.

So the good news is, if your money has been claimed by the government, you can get it back, but some part of me thinks the government is hoping a lot of people just don't bother. So if this happens to you, make sure you do!

For those interested in reading what ASIC has to say about the rule change click HERE

Has this happened to you? Did your bank let you know? Share your story....

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Latest tax scam email: stealing YOUR tax details and lodging fake tax returns!!

Warning - if you receive any suspicious tax emails don't open up any attachments, report it to the ATO and delete it as per my instructions at the bottom of the blog post. 

So, I opened up my inbox to the following email this morning:

End of email

Even though the email appears to be sent from @ato.gov.au, it is a SCAM email. Keep your tax file number, date of birth, address, phone number and name confidential. DO NOT reply to this email with your details - the ATO would already have this on file and would never send an email like this. There is also no such thing as a 2013 subsidy benefit!!

Scammers try and steal your tax details so they can lodge fake tax returns under YOUR name and collect big tax refunds into bank accounts they control. Given that tax time is coming up soon, watch out for anything suspicious and keep your tax information confidential.

If you receive a suspicious looking email from the ATO click this link here to report it to the ATO. Once reported, delete the email and do not follow any of its instructions in the scam email.

If you are not sure about any correspondence you receive show it to a tax professional or call the ATO.

Remember - if the email is too good to be true, it's generally a scam!!

 

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